Dangerous Shades? Potentially Harmful Metals Found in Lipstick

What's in your lipstick? Not just eye-catching color and a waxy base. Informed consumers have known for years that lipsticks may also contain traces of lead, and now they can add a whole list of scary sounding components to the mix. The New York Times reports that, in a test of 32 lipsticks and glosses used by young women in California, scientists have detected eight additional metals, including aluminum, cobalt, and nickel. In many of the lipsticks, the amount of particular metals ingested by women who use them several times a day was estimated to exceed acceptable daily levels. "Our finding indicate the potential for risk," says lead researcher Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

What the findings don't indicate, however, is a need to panic. The danger, if any, is long-term and not the result of occasionally daubing your lips with color. Two of the metals in question, aluminum and titanium, are actually approved by the FDA for use in cosmetic pigments, and the rest probably show up in tiny amounts because of contamination during the manufacture, transfer, or filling of tubes, says cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson of beautystat.com. At least three of the metals—chromium, cadmium, and manganese—also occur naturally (in larger amounts) in foods we eat every day, according to the Personal Care Products Council, an industry group.

Still, the uncertainty of not knowing what's on your lips, and what it might do to your health, is an obvious concern. The new research doesn't offer much in the way of advice. "We found no pattern in metal concentrations by brand, cost, color, or type, [and] we evaluated only a few dozen of the hundreds of products, the composition if which changes frequently," says Hammond, who sometimes wears lipstick and hasn't changed her habits in the wake of the study. So to the women who are now asking if it's safer to wear lighter colors because they have less pigment, the answer is probably no: in a previous European study, lead was found in various concentrations in lipsticks and glosses in a rainbow of colors, including brown, pink, purple, and red. Reds had the lowest average lead score—but a red lipstick also had the single highest score.

We need more information. After the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics drew attention to lead in lipstick in 2007, the FDA launched an investigation to restore consumer confidence. The agency should now do the same with other metals. In the meantime, says cosmetic chemist Ni'Kita Wilson, "If you have sensitivities to any of these materials and have an issue when wearing lipsticks and glosses, then limiting your exposure may be a good course of action. As of now, there are no studies linking lipstick with serious health concerns."